Biden’s visit: American-Irish links
Johnny McCarthy sums up the Vice-President of the United States of America, Joe Biden’s recent visit to Ireland.
As the result of the UK referendum on membership of the European Union was announced, the Vice-President of the United States of America, Joe Biden, took to a stage outside Dublin Castle to reaffirm the strength of America’s relationship with Ireland.
“Never forget Joey, the greatest drop of blood in you is Irish,” Biden quoted his grandfather in a vast speech that covered topics from the Vice-President’s Irish heritage to the current political climate involving, “reactionary politicians and demagogues peddling xenophobia, nationalism and isolationism”.
The speech came on the fourth day of Biden’s trip to Ireland, the main part of which was used to trace the roots of his great-great-great-grandfather Edward Blewitt who lived in Ballina and his great-great-grandfather Owen Finnegan, a shoe-maker from Louth. The personal nature of the trip was made apparent by the fact the Vice-President travelled to Ireland with his five grandchildren, as well as his sister and brother. Despite his strong Irish roots, he begged the forgiveness of the crowd assembled in the capital due to his father’s name Biden being of English decent.
The trip took in the two-day visit to Mayo as well as a visit to County Louth. Other engagements included a round of golf with the Taoiseach, a visit to Áras an Uachtaráin to meet President Michael D. Higgins and a reception at Trinity College where Biden received an honorary doctorate as well as a gold medal from the University’s philosophical society.
Despite the personal nature of his visit, the politics of the day could not be avoided. Biden used the words of W.B. Yeats to describe the current climate: “All’s changed, changed utterly, a terrible beauty has been born.” He added: “In the past 15 years, all has changed in the world… mass migration, war, terrorism, infectious diseases, climate change, economic unease and anxiety had given rise to an inevitable human reaction – frustration and anger.” He denounced politicians who, “find it convenient to scapegoat immigrants instead of welcoming them”. In a more direct reference to Republican US Presidential nominee Donald Trump, he criticised politicians who, “build walls instead of building bridges,” calling these statements “un-American”.
Biden told the crowd that America and Ireland both need to remember that “we are a nation of immigrants and emigrants”. He went on to point out that the Irish were not immediately welcomed into their new homes arriving in America and recalled a visit to a restored, centuries-old, train station that bore a sign proclaiming ‘no Irish here’.
Turning to more local events, Biden prefaced his comments on the UK’s Brexit vote by saying that the USA hopes to grow its relationship with the European Union which he called the “the largest economic relationship in the word”.
The UK referendum result “was not how we would have preferred it to be but we respect their position”. Biden said it was now up to the leaders in Britain and in Brussels to decide what their new relationship will look like and that America: “will continue to work with our partners to navigate a new road ahead while continuing to promote stability, security and prosperity around the world.”
The timing of the speech in Dublin, on the eve of a Pride event that was to take over the city the next day, as well as his introduction to the audience from Michael Barron of Belong, gave the Vice-President an opportunity to speak about the Equal Marriage Referendum. He drew a parallel between the American Declaration of Independence, which proclaimed that: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal,” and the 1916 Easter Proclamation which speaks of “cherishing all the children of the nation equally.” Biden commented: “There can be no cultural justification for the denial of human rights.”
Apart from a reference to the partnership of America and Ireland in the fight against ISIL and how the partnership had helped both nations move through the global economic crisis and come out stronger on the other side, the bulk of Vice-President Biden’s speech consisted of the philosophical connection between the two nations.
Biden said that this connection has been with him in good times and bad, including during the death of his son Beau. He spoke of his pride when his home state press announced ‘Biden Most Popular Politician – Beau’ and President Obama using the words of Patrick Kavanagh in his eulogy to Beau Biden: “Let grief be a falling leaf at the dawn of day.”
The philosophical connection and the currency of this connection was then cemented in a story, now typical of Vice-President Biden’s style of oratory, of how only five weeks before his great-great-grandfather, Owen Finnegan, left from Louth, for the last time, to sail to the United States, another shoemaker, Joseph Kearny also left to make the journey from County Offaly. This man, Biden noted, was the great-great-grandfather of Barack Obama. “Could they ever have dreamt that 160 years later, two great-great-grandsons of shoemakers from Ireland would be sworn in as President and Vice-President of the United States?”
The Vice-President concluded: “It is up to us to keep that sense of possibility alive… it is our history, our present and hopefully it will be our future.”
